Garmin just unveiled the newest member of the zūmo family, and the company says it’s designed specifically with motorcyclists in mind. It’s called the zūmo XT, and it boasts a host of features that riders should greatly appreciate if it’s all it’s cracked up to be.
Get Around:
The new zūmo XT features a 5.5-inch ultrabright display, to show up clearly even in bright sunlight on your bike. As you’d hope, Garmin also says it’s glove-friendly and has a water rating of IPX7, which means it’s good against “splashes, rain or snow, and showering.” If you need help finding your way out of the shower, the zūmo XT is your unit! However, it’s not suitable for swimming, diving, snorkeling, scuba diving, and/or high-speed watersports. That means no Amity Island jaunts for you, zūmo XT!
Your brightness settings determine battery longevity out of the box. On “regular” settings (whatever that means), Garmin says the battery can last up to six hours. At 100 percent brightness, that number drops to 3.5 hours. Hard-wiring it will, as ever, get you as much range as you like.
Other features include birdseye satellite imagery, preloaded on- and off-road maps covering several geographic locations, simple map switching, a track recorder you can switch on and off to save routes for future use, and something called “Garmin Adventurous Routing.” Spoken directions in your connected helmet or headset help keep you on your route without taking your attention away from the road.
There are also a host of connectivity options available, from expected things like hands-free calling when you pair it with the Garmin Drive app on your smartphone, to live traffic and weather updates, to the ability to pair it with an inReach satellite communicator if that’s how you roll. You can also set an emergency contact to receive a text notification from your zūmo XT that includes your location in the event of an “incident.”
Since this device is brand new, no reviews are available as of yet. Time and rider experiences will tell if this unit is worth the MSRP of US $499.99, or if you’re better off without it.
Source: Garmin